Law Enforcement Sees Crime Fighting Software as Way to Combat Drug &
Gang Crime and Help Police Become More Effective

Nearly Two Thirds Don’t Use Analytics Now Due to Budget
Constraints, According to Wynyard Survey

October 28, 2015 11:39 AM Eastern Daylight Time

ARLINGTON, Va.--(EON: Enhanced Online News)--When crime fighting software provider Wynyard Group surveyed U.S. law
enforcement officials on their use of crime analytics software, 88
percent of respondents felt that intelligence-led law enforcement
coupled with the use of data analytics has significant potential to help
law enforcement be more effective and efficient.

“The potential for police to use data and technology to
improve their effectiveness is one of the most significant developments
in law enforcement today. The challenge therefore lies with law
enforcement partners to provide solutions that are easy to use and are
highly effective in helping solve crimes.”

While law enforcement agencies are having success using crime fighting
software to solve crimes faster, the survey shows the majority are still
policing using the same techniques that have been in practice for
decades.

93 percent of respondents said they saw crime analytics software
becoming more widely used in the near future, but only 34 percent said
they are currently using this software, roughly the same as last year.
When asked why crime fighting software adoption rates are not higher, a
lack of budget was given as the top reason (66%).

Derek Brown, Vice President Americas at Wynyard Group said: “This is a
tumultuous time for the law enforcement community as criminals are
making increased use of technology to enable and accelerate their
activity. Law enforcement resources are stretched thin, both in terms of
budget and manpower and there is a continual push to do more with less.”

“The survey data clearly shows that law enforcement believes analytics
and intelligence-led policing can do that.”

The Second Annual Wynyard Advanced Crime Analytics Survey of nearly 450
police chiefs, federal investigators, analysts, and other law
enforcement officials found that of those departments using some form of
technology to fight crime, 77 percent are analyzing social media for
intelligence to fight crime while nearly 60 percent are analyzing social
networks to uncover gang activity.

Brown continues, “Increasingly, we hear of the ways that criminals and
gangs utilize social media to carry out and even publicize their
criminal activity. This provides a valuable source of digital
intelligence that can be combined with other lawfully gathered
information from call records, emails, and investigative reports. This
can then be analyzed using crime analytics software to make connections
between seemingly unconnected pieces of data, and quickly uncover
relationships that may otherwise be missed.”

For those currently using crime analytics, the largest number of
responders (nearly 30 percent) said they are using it to fight
drug-related crime, while the software is also used to fight: gang
violence and crime (25 percent), gun related (20 percent), fraud and
financial crime (18 percent), sex crimes (17 percent), homicide (17
percent), organized crime (12 percent), and human trafficking (10
percent).

Among those law enforcement agencies not using crime fighting software,
over half said they would use advanced crime analytics to fight drug
crimes if they had the technology. Nearly 40 percent said they would use
it specifically to investigate fraud and financial crime.

Survey respondents also indicated that they would prefer allocating
funds to crime fighting software rather than body cameras, if given a
choice.

Brown concludes, “The potential for police to use data and technology to
improve their effectiveness is one of the most significant developments
in law enforcement today. The challenge therefore lies with law
enforcement partners to provide solutions that are easy to use and are
highly effective in helping solve crimes.”

The Second Annual Wynyard Group Advanced Crime Analytics Survey was
conducted during September 2015 and released at IACP 2015, the 122nd
annual conference of the International Association of Chiefs of Police.
Further report information, including an infographic of the Second
Annual Wynyard Group Advanced Crime Analytics Survey is available at the
following link.

About Wynyard Group

Wynyard Group is a market leader in crime fighting software used by
customers in government security, justice, law enforcement, financial
services and critical national infrastructure.

Its powerful advanced crime analytics and investigations case management
products help customers prevent and solve serious financial crime,
organized and trans-national crime and new generation threats from
extremism and high consequence cyber crime.

Wynyard solutions bring together next generation big data capability
with specialist investigations and intelligence tradecraft on one
powerful software platform.

Wynyard partners with major systems integrators and some of the world’s
leading software companies and has operations in the United States,
United Kingdom, Canada, Middle East, Australia and New Zealand.

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